


The Boy With the Broken Halo

by caughtitonland



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-08-12
Updated: 2011-08-12
Packaged: 2017-10-26 12:14:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/283005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caughtitonland/pseuds/caughtitonland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>After getting arrested for the last time, 15 year-old Danny Williams is sent to Hawaii via the government's new, Move it or Lose it program, which aims at correcting juvenile delinquents by taking them out of their environment and setting them up somewhere new. With his backwards jeans and baseball jerseys, his fondness for graffiti and weed, and that annoying habit of blasting House of Pain as loud as possible, Danny is a handful even for his uber-understanding foster mom.<br/>When he meets the Kukui High's newest and brightest student athlete, one Steve McGarrett, the two strike up an unlikely friendship that quickly turns into first love. As the school year winds down, and separation looms ever nearer, the boys decide to make their first (and last) summer together count for more than just teenage fun.<br/>Fast forward almost twenty years and two men meet in a garage, guns drawn, both after the same man, and neither recognizing the other until the dust settles...</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy With the Broken Halo

  
_September 1992..._  
"Mr. Williams, you're a smart boy. You're passing all of your classes with flying colors, you never fail to hand in an assignment on time, and your coach back in New Jersey tells me that you were one of his best players. The only thing that's not adding up is your behavior."  
Danny rolled his eyes, sighing as Principle Kahele droned on.

"Your mother and father sent you here to see if a change in scenery would do you some good. I want you to use this opportunity to examine your choices and see if a life behind bars is really what you want.

“Kukui High's programs are vast and varied; I'm sure you'll find something you love here, whether it be a class or one of our sports teams. Just remember, Mr. Williams, three strikes here, and you're out for good."

In reality, the state of New Jersey had mandated Danny's move to Hawaii, citing his criminal deviance and lack of respect for authority both inside and outside of school as grounds for his eligibility into their new, Move It or Lose It program.

Some schmuck shrink somewhere had brainwashed the whole of the country with the idea that removing a child from the environment where they were misbehaving and placing them somewhere new would cure them all of their deviancy, so Danny, along with a handful of his classmates, had all been put into the program, shipped across the damn world and set up with a host family that was supposed to keep them in line. Danny considered himself lucky that he got placed with the Palakiko family and not the Aukais, like his friend Jamie; Mrs. Aukais had a backhand to rival a wrestler's and she wasn't afraid to use it on 'little haoles who don't listen.'  
Principle Kahele made a shooing motion that brought Danny's thoughts back to the present; the older man clearly indicating it was time for his newest student to get out of his office and go to Homeroom. The bell rang as he stood and put on his baseball cap, Danny turning it nearly all the way back before sauntering out of the office, blatantly ignoring the principle's warning for him to take it off or have it confiscated.

Stepping out into the early morning rain, he wondered what the hell his parents were thinking when they agreed to send him to the water-logged, shark-infested dot on the map that was Hawaii. Sure, he got into trouble every now and then, but getting busted for graffiti and weed in the same week was no reason to ship him off to the Land of Volcanoes! A drop of rain landed on his forehead and Danny cursed, wiping at the spot as he tried to duck under what little overhang Kukui's roofs offered.

Kukui High School, home of the Kings (what kind of mascot _was_ that, any way?) was constructed as an 'open air' school, meaning that only the classrooms were actually indoors. The rest of the school, including the hallways and the lockers were all exposed to the elements. For Danny, all it meant was that he arrived at Homeroom on his first day of class, soaked all the way through, his Nike's squishing grossly with all the water. Pausing before opening the door to the classroom, he gave himself a quick once-over to make sure everything was in place. Pants on backwards? Check. Baseball jersey on backwards? Check. Hat on backwards? Check. He looked _good_. With a confident smirk plastered firmly on his face, Danny opened the door and strolled into the room, ready to impress all the idiots he'd be calling classmates for the rest of the year. His teacher, Ms. Iona, was the first to see him. She gave him a slightly-worried smile before ushering him to the front of the buzzing class.

"Boys and girls, can I have your attention please? We have a new student that will be joining us this year. I want you all to give a big 'Aloha!' to Danny Williams from New Jersey."

Danny jerked his chin up towards the first hot girl he spotted, her eyebrow going up before she turned her back on him, looking completely grossed out. No one else in the class was any better as first one, then all the rest, began laughing and pointing at him, much to Ms. Iona's chagrin. Without a second thought, Danny flipped the class off and moved to the back to take his seat, a scowl replacing the smirk that had been there only seconds before.

Slumping into his chair, he turned his ball cap so the brim hid his eyes, Danny fuming that they had the gall to laugh at him. The class used Danny as an excuse to get wild and as Ms. Iona tried to regain control, Danny heard a whisper come from somewhere next to him. "Hey, buddy, your pants and shirt are on backwards. Just thought I'd let you know, since the kids in next period are even worse."

"It's called _style_ , Poindexter. And maybe you should step off before I break your face!" Danny growled back heatedly, his voice just low enough to be heard by the other boy.  
"Yeah, well here, it's called, 'I just rolled out of bed and grabbed the first thing that was on the floor', brah. No one here wears their clothes like that."

The smart-ass answer made Danny look up, his eyes narrowing at the kid that was seated to his left. The boy's dark hair was cut short, his blue-grey eyes alert and friendly despite the early hour and as Danny gave him the up and down, it was clear that he and style had never met. A plain black t-shirt tucked into acid-washed jeans was completed by a pair of old-but-clean Reebok high tops, the kind with the air pump built in. Looking around, Danny realized that the kid was dressed about the same as their other classmates and that, to his humiliation, he was the only one sporting anything 'fashionable'.

"What do you know? You're just some dumb kid who's never left the island. You wouldn't know what's cool if it hit you in the face," Danny retorted, knowing it was mean. Deep down, he didn't _really_ want to hurt the boy's feelings, but he was too embarrassed to say anything different, and he had a reputation to protect.

"Actually, I only moved here two years ago. My family's from the mainland, just like you. I'm Steve. Steve McGarrett."

"What're ya? James Bond? Leave me alone." Far from being ready to shake Steve's hand--which had been so nicely extended to him--Danny simply shook his head and crossed his arms, sulking even further into his seat.

The rest of the day was no better, and come lunch, Danny was ready to skip town, even if it meant stealing a boat from some poor fisherman. He moved through the lunch line as quickly as possible, grabbing a slice of pizza with _pineapple_ on it, chocolate milk, and a really old, hard chocolate chip cookie before slipping out to one of the outdoor tables wary of any of the older kids catching a glimpse of him. That was the _last_ thing he needed. Just as he was about to take a seat at an empty table, a group of giggling girls all sat down in unison, leaving no room for him to sit even if he'd wanted to. Beyond irritated, Danny threw his lunch, tray and all, in the trash and moved out towards the quad, looking for some place quiet where he could think without having to hear 'brah' every two seconds.

After a few minutes of searching, he found an old Brush Box tree tucked in next to the building, its leaves providing shade from the midday sun. With a sigh, Danny unbuttoned his baseball jersey and took it off, turning it inside out before sitting on it; his jeans were _way_ more expensive than his shirt and he could always beg his dad to send him a new one.  
Scrubbing a hand over his ball cap, Danny tried to calm down, reminding himself that the first day of school was always awkward and that come Friday, he'd be just another nameless face in the crowd. He'd only been in Hawaii two days and already he missed Jersey. Maybe if he called and promised to change, his parents would let him come home. Danny was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice someone sitting down next to him until the sound of a paper bag being opened resounded in his ears. Looking up and to his left, he saw Steve holding up a sandwich bag, his blue eyes earnest and questioning.

"I saw you dump your lunch earlier. You looked pretty upset, but I've got a spare sandwich if you want to save it for later..." Steve began, his voice soft, as though they were sharing a secret. Danny paused for a moment, waiting to see if Steve, like all of their other classmates, was going to either laugh at him or snatch the sandwich away as a cruel joke. When it became obvious that neither was going to happen, Danny took the sandwich with a nod of his head.  
“Thanks,” he replied, his own voice just as soft as he opened the plastic bag and took out half of the BLT sandwich, his eyes still locked on Steve, distrustful of the other boy. For his part, Steve merely sat there, pulled out a second sandwich and dug into his own lunch, his smile warm and open.

Danny's thoughts drifted back to Jersey as he ate, wondering if his actions really _had_ been bad enough to warrant him getting sent all the way to Hawaii. Graffiti could be washed away, weed could be burned or thrown out, and bruises healed. When Danny really thought about it though, he knew all those things were just outbursts created in order to hide what he was really feeling. It wasn't anything _terribly_ dark, mind you; no one abused him, no one yelled at him, he wasn't poor, and he certainly didn't have any learning disabilities, if his grades were anything to go by. No, the problem was that Danny's parents were well off and bored, much like their son.

The year he turned 14—the year when all the trouble started—Danny found out that his father's boredom, in particular, had lent itself to him finding a girlfriend and keeping her on the side in a seedy motel right on the shore. Danny would have never known about his dad's mistress had he not run into both of them one day at the 7-11 just off the pier, his father buying condoms, his new girlfriend buying lube.

Both the Williams men stood and stared at each other, too stunned to speak, their mouths open as they each tried to form a plan of action. His father was the first to speak up, an embarrassed smile on his face. “Son, you can't tell your mother. It'll kill her,” he whispered, hands up in front of him, pleading with his oldest boy as though he were begging for his life. Danny stood there, mouth wide, eyes wider, anger turning to rage, the urge to hit his father growing uncontrollable.

Chief Williams, as he was known to almost everyone, waited as though he knew that Danny would hit him. When it was clear that Danny—too young, confused, and angered to do anything—wasn't going to raise his hand, the eldest Williams nodded his thanks, as though having been granted reconciliation from a priest. It was a moment in Danny's life that he was certain he'd never forget. One that even now, a year later, he was still able to recall with vivid detail.  
As he chewed the last piece of the first half of his sandwich, he looked over at Steve, wondering what the other boy's story was. Whether his parents were together, if he had any brothers and sisters, or if he was an only child. He wasn't about to ask, as it wasn't any of his business, but if Steve _wanted_ to tell him, Danny wasn't going to stop him. It was almost as if the other boy had read Danny's mind, because after a moment, Steve turned so he was sitting perpendicular to Danny and gave him a warm, bright smile.

“So you're from Jersey, huh?” Steve asked. Danny, having to refrain from rolling his eyes as he nodded, took out the second half of the sandwich. He wasn't sure whether Steve himself had made it, or whether his mom had prepared his lunch as some of the mom's on the island were keen to do, but whomever was responsible had done a fine job. The lettuce was crispy, the tomato was juicy, and the bacon had managed not to get soggy even after half a day of bouncing around in Steve's backpack.

“So if you're from Jersey,” Steve tried again, his smile growing amused, “what are you doing here? Is your family in the military?” he asked, his curiosity earnest, almost innocent as he pulled an apple out of the brown bag and began to cut it in half.

“Mmm, no, not military,” Danny replied, hoping it would be enough of an answer. It was in that moment that he realized he was embarrassed about having been shipped here through the Move It or Lose It program; that he didn't want to tell people what the real reason for his move was, or why he was staying with a foster family.

Steve however, hadn't given him enough time to make up a story; a lie that would be convincing enough to get him through the school year. After a moment, Danny realized he had no choice; he had to tell Steve the truth or the other kid was going to pester the hell out of him until he did. Turning so that he was facing Steve, Danny stuck out his pinkie, his eyes darting around to make sure no one was looking.

“You have to promise me that you won't tell anyone. If you tell someone, I'm gonna beat you to a bloody pulp.” Steve’s eyes widened, but he nodded fervently, making it obvious that the kid had never taken a beating in his life. “I promise,” he added after a moment, compounding the physical answer with a verbal one.

Certain that if Steve suddenly grew the balls to tell someone, that he could take the skinny kid on with no problem, Danny relented and looked down at his half-eaten sandwich, building up the courage to tell the truth for once in his short young life.

“You want to know the truth? Okay, here's the truth. I got sent here because I got into trouble back in Jersey. There's a program that your school and my old school both joined, some government crap called Move It or Lose It. They think that taking me out of Jersey and putting me in Hawaii where I don't know anyone will make me a good kid again. I can tell you for a fact, it's not gonna change a thing. Just gonna be one, year-long vacation, then when I get home, I'm gonna start doing the same stupid shit. I'll go to Juvie and then, at some point, I'll probably end up in jail.”

As he talked, Danny noticed Steve's forehead start to crinkle, his eyes start to narrow, and his face turn into something that Danny had only seen in Mad magazine when a character—brilliantly illustrated by one of the Mad staffers—was shown on the toilet having a particularly rotten dump. Danny called it the constipated look; his mom called it the aneurysm face, whatever the hell that was. Danny hadn't bothered to look it up. He didn't take Biology until next year and he was certain he'd find out what it meant then.

“Why are you giving me poop face?” Danny asked, his own expression mirroring Steve's as he leaned in closer unconsciously.

“I'm not giving you poop face! What's poop face?” Steve asked, his face growing even more amusing as it contorted into what Danny's mom would _definitely_ call aneurysm face.

“Poop face. Looks like you're straining really hard, you know, on the crapper?” Danny explained, trying his best not to laugh at the poor kid. He really was a clueless islander, even if he _was_ from the mainland.

“I'm not giving you poop face and I'm not constipated. I'm just trying to figure out why you think you're gonna go back and be that kid again. A year is a long time, a lot of things could change for you.”

“Yeah, well the things that need to change so I can change, aren't gonna change, so I'm not gonna change. By the way, do you know where I can get some weed around here?”

“What?” Steve asked, looking more than a little shocked, as if Danny had just asked him where the brothel was and how much it would cost him for the night. “I don't do drugs, dude. You're on your own there.”

“Yup, Poindexter definitely fits the bill,” Danny muttered, more to himself than to Steve. The comment brought out Steve's poop face in a more pronounced fashion than it had ever been and this time, Danny couldn't help himself as he let out a laugh that echoed through the quad, drawing more than a few heads towards him and Steve, the kids wondering what in the world was so funny.

Steve raised a hand and, with a quick shake of his head, made everyone turn their attention back to whatever it had been on before Danny had had his little giggling fit. The transplant took notice, wondering how in the hell a fellow freshman, a newbie to Kukui High School—a stranger, for all intents and purposes—could command students that were older than him, smarter than him, and had more experience than him.

“What are you, like class president or something? First year out of the gate? Or do you have a Jedi mind trick I don't know about,” Danny asked, looking at Steve with his mouth ajar, awe clearly written on his features.

“Um, not really,” Steve said, as though his questions were actually valid and not rhetorical. “I play football,” he volunteered, shrugging a bit as he handed half the apple to Danny, the cream color of the core already slightly browned.

“You play football?” Steve nodded. “Okay, are you JV or Varsity?” Danny tested, knowing full well that freshman, barring a very rare exception, could never play on Varsity and that even getting onto the JV squad was a feat in and of itself.

“Varsity,” Steve answered, still looking as nonchalant as ever, his thin frame hiding what little muscle he had.

“Ha! Busted.” Danny grinned in triumph, holding his apple up in the air as if it were a bicorne hat and he was Napoleon on his horse of victory. “You're a total liar. There's no way that you, a freshman, can be on the Varsity squad. Unless mommy and daddy own the football team.”

“They don't own the football team. I guess I just...impressed the coaches,” Steve explained, another non-committal shrug being given as he leaned back against the tree, clearly full.

“You just 'impressed the coaches.'” Danny made air quotes around the same words Steve had used, shaking his head in disbelief. “That's really funny,” he added, chuckling and still not trusting everything that came out of Steve's mouth.

“Fine. Don't believe me? Come to the game on Friday, you'll see. I’m starting in the game,” Steve said, no cockiness in his words, just a knowing confidence that made Danny more than a little wary of having second-guessed his new friend.

“Fine. What time is the game?”

“Right after school. Six pm. We're playing at home, so you won't have to go far.”  
Danny nodded, making a mental note to remind his new 'warden', as he'd so kindly taken to calling her, that he'd be late coming home on Friday, but not because he'd be out partying or putting up graffiti on King Kamehameha's statue, but because he was going to be watching his new friend play football.

______________________

Friday came sooner than expected, the hours whizzing past in a flurry of homework, chores, and the occasional bike ride with Mrs. Palakiko's son, Junior, to go buy coconut milk for dinner. The Palakiko's kept Danny busy and as such, he hadn't had the chance to so much as meet anyone after school, or find anywhere to score weed. Without him realizing it, the Move It or Lose It program was working exactly as intended—at least for now.

The last class of the day was intolerable, even more so because Danny was actually looking forward to doing something after school. Ms. Hamilton's Algebra class was torture even on the best of days, but her gold lamé leggings, body odor, and penchant for eating as she gave her lecture made her the most unwelcome teacher in all of Kukui and routinely caused her senior classes to drop completely, as by that point, most students had experienced more than their fair share of her.

“All right class, two minutes ‘till the bell. Once you’re settled, open your books to page thirty-eight and take a few minutes to read about Rectangular Coordinates, okay?” Ms. Hamilton wheezed, ending her sentence with her favorite word which, as always, was spoken through a mouth full of banana chips.

Danny tried not to vomit as he turned away from her chip-covered face. The urge eased as he saw Steve walk in with a few classmates, wearing khakis, a white button down, and a red tie. He looked older, more mature, and definitely put together. Danny reconsidered the fashion victim status he'd given his friend on Monday, admitting to himself that Steve looked pretty damn sharp.

"Hey," he greeted as Steve took his usual seat to Danny's left, his friend's smile matching Danny's own.

"What are we doing?" Steve asked, pulling out his book and flipping automatically to the right chapter as he kept his attention on Danny.

"Rectangular Coordinates. I've already done the homework. The Warden wouldn't let me go out for a ride yesterday, so I figured I'd get it done since I had the weekend free."

Steve looked impressed as Danny explained his reasoning. It wasn't the first time that week Danny had broken one of Steve's assumptions, and far from being cross about it, he merely smiled softly at his friend before gently punching him in the arm.

"I'll give you the answers after the game. No use in keeping them if I can't share, right?"

"Riiight," Steve nodded, snapping out of his awe just long enough to give Danny a high five.

Algebra seemed to take an eternity, but finally the bell rang and both Danny and Steve bolted from their desks, each headed in a different direction; Steve for the locker room and Danny for the Burger King a block down from the school. Mrs. Palakiko had been kind enough to give him money for dinner, and as he walked, Danny looked forward to the food and the game, having resigned himself to enjoy it even if he was alone in the bleachers and even he didn't think Steve was telling the truth about starting, like he said he would be.

As he walked, Danny became distinctly aware of someone following him. For a while, he kept looking straight ahead, not wanting to cause trouble this early in his stay, but when the solitary sound of shoes scuffing the sidewalk turned into multiple footsteps, Danny felt he had no choice but to turn and confront his would-be tormentors. His eyes widened as he turned to find three gigantic seniors grinning wickedly at him. All three of the boys looked like linebackers gone bad and Danny knew in an instant that the pocket knife Junior had loaned him would be absolutely useless against the brutes.

"What's up, guys?" was all he managed to get out before the pummeling began.

A few minutes later the three hooligans had had their fill, and laughing, they made their way back to the school's stadium, leaving Danny curled up on the sidewalk. Danny kept his eyes closed for a bit, mentally doing a head-to-toe check of his body for any severe injuries. No broken bones, no sprains, no deep stab wounds. He tasted blood, but upon sliding his tongue out gingerly, he found that the root was a cracked tooth and a split lip. Gently, Danny moved each of his limbs, sighing in relief when they all worked. His head was ringing and he was sure the feeling wouldn't go away any time soon. Sitting up, he looked down at himself and saw a myriad of scrapes and quickly-forming bruises. Danny spat out the pieces of his broken tooth before slowly getting to his feet.

The beating had chased away Danny's appetite, which was just as well since the thugs had taken his money. Glumly, Danny moved back towards the direction of the school, figuring that if he came into the stadium from the right side (or maybe sat on the visitor's bench), he could see the guys and pick a spot in order to avoid them. It had been a while since Danny had been beat up, but the shear size of the guys had stunned him long enough to give them the upper hand. It wasn't a mistake Danny was going to let happen again.

He kept his head down, turned his ball cap around to the front, and pulled it low over his swollen face as he made his way through the crowd of classmates, parents, and teachers. Squinting from the one eye that wasn't swollen shut, Danny spotted the crew from earlier and immediately went the other way, going up the far side of the bleachers and taking a seat behind them so he was out of their line of sight. There was no way he was going to be able to actually see the game, but Danny would stay just long enough to hear the announcer call out the starting line up and then head home where he only hoped Mrs. Palakiko wouldn't call his parents to tell them about the incident.

As he waited, Danny tried--despite his bruised eye--to spot Steve in the crowd of red jerseys, having no idea what the other boy's number was. He kept himself hunched over so that Steve wouldn't see him; the last thing he wanted was a big red target to point out his location in the stands. After a few moments, he spotted his friend, warming up with a wide receiver, both boys laughing as though they'd known each other their whole lives.

The sight ignited something in Danny that he hadn't felt in a long time; jealousy. Danny hadn't been jealous of anyone since the second grade when his baby sister, Sabrina, was born and their mom shifted all of her attention to her newborn instead of her eldest son. Now, Danny was feeling it again; the target being the nameless wide receiver who, from the looks of it, was in the middle of telling Steve a story about fishing. Figures Steve would be into the one of the few things Danny wasn't good at. No matter though; they were just friends and Steve was allowed to be friends with whomever he wanted, Danny rationalized.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, the wide receiver walked away, leaving Steve all alone. The taller boy turned, looking into the bleachers to see if he could spot anyone he knew. Quickly, Danny curled up and hid behind an older woman, her wide girth blocking his whole body from view. He watched as Steve waved, a younger girl, maybe 12 or 13, waving back excitedly while the man next to her did the same.

 _His little sister and his dad._ Danny assumed, all three wavers undoubtedly related, judging by looks alone. Once Steve had turned back around, Danny sat upright again, the announcer coming over the loudspeaker as he did so. The man's voice was a deep, thrumming bass that cut through all the chatter in the bleachers.

“Welcome to the greatest rivalry in Hawaiian High School Football, ladies and gentleman. The KuKui Kings, versus the Piikoi Scorpions. Starting at quarterback for our illustrious home team, is freshman football prodigy, Steve McGarrett.”

Danny smiled softly to himself as he heard his friend’s name, the crowd cheering him on as though he were an NFL player and not a high school newbie. In that moment, Danny knew that he could trust Steve unequivocally; his friend had told him the truth and there was no denying it now.

His right eye throbbing, Danny nevertheless stayed in his seat until kickoff, wanting to see just how good a player Steve really was. The ball was snapped and Steve caught it easily. Danny knew from having played casually, that his friend was looking for an opening; one free man that he could pass to in order to help score the first touchdown of the night. At the very last moment, just before he would have been sacked, Steve tossed out a beautiful spiral, the ball leaving his fingertips as though in slow motion. Danny watched it sail over most of the other team, the arc pristine and crisp, perfectly angled towards the wide receiver Steve had been talking to earlier. Time sped back up as the wide receiver reached out for it, his eyes wide even from beneath his helmet. Danny couldn't stop himself from standing and cheering along with the rest of the school when the other player caught the ball, turned, and ran until he made it to the end zone. The crowd went nuts, their cheers overpowering even the announcer as Kukui struck the first blow.

Using everyone elses standing position to his advantage, Danny discreetly made his way down the stairs and out of the stadium. His body was beginning to scream with pain now, and he knew that if he didn't make it home soon, someone was going to have to come get him; walking was starting to be a chore.

When he arrived home, Mrs. Palakiko let out a shriek and then cursed in what he could only assume to be Pidgin, her hands going to her face before she scurried out of the living room and into the kitchen.

“What happened?” she asked as she came back with an ice pack in one hand, a bag of frozen peas in the other. Danny wondered just how torn up his face really was. It didn't _feel_ that bad, but by her look of horror, he could only assume that it looked much worse than it was.

“I got jumped,” he responded once he'd settled on the couch, every joint aching. His ribs in particular were excruciating, the bones roaring the pain through his body from where the kids had kicked him.

“Who jumped you? Do you know these kids?” She asked, handing him the bag of peas which he placed on his swollen knee. “So have you ever met these kids before?” Mrs. Palakiko asked as she sat down next to him, one hand gingerly stroking his back.

“No, I've never met them before. Never even seen them until today after school.”

“Where were you going? I thought you were going to the football game.”

“Relax ward—I mean, Mrs. Palakiko. I _was_ going to the football game, I just had to get some dinner first. I went—I _tried_ to go to Burger King and that's when they caught up to me.”

“'They?'”

“Yeah, 'they'. There were three of them,” Danny explained, resting his elbow on his good knee while holding the ice pack over his throbbing eye.

“Were these kids your age?” she pressed, her hand never once leaving his back, which caused Danny to wonder why she was being so kind and understanding when she hardly knew him. Had he come home like this to his own mother, she would have added to his existing pain with a belt or a shoe, and no supper. Instead, Danny just felt as though he were at a police station, giving a witness statement, not as the perp but as the victim.

For the first time around any figure of authority, Danny felt like he could tell the truth and bless her heart, Mrs. Palakiko was the first person to hear it and believe him. Danny had long ago built up a wall made of one-word answers, cocky smiles, and a give 'em hell attitude. Only now, in the small but cozy living room of Mrs.Palakiko were those walls beginning to come down with her opposite reaction to the incident.

“Do you think if we asked Principle Kahele to see last year's yearbook that you'd recognize them?” Mrs. Palakiko asked, a sad smile crossing her face as she looked down at her newest arrival with nothing but sympathy.

“Yeah, maybe,” Danny relented, unsure if he'd be able to pick out details; size, clothes, and haircuts would have to do.

“Okay, you go up, have a shower, come back, and we'll have dinner. Tomorrow, we'll see about finding you a yearbook.”

“Tomorrow's Saturday, ma'am,” Danny replied respectfully, his free hand pointing at the wall clock as though it had a built in calendar. She got the message however, Mrs. Palakiko giving a knowing nod as she relented.

“Monday. Monday. This weekend you relax, have fun with your new friend--”

“I don't have a new friend,” Danny stammered, unwilling to let anyone know that he and Steve had been hanging out almost every day under the big, old, tree.

To Danny, their time together was sacrosanct, a respite from a place he didn't know, people he didn't want to talk to, and things he'd rather not be doing. It was a short span of time where no one laughed at him, made jokes about his baggy clothes, or asked him if his dad was in the mob (which was their latest joke). With Steve, Danny could be himself, and not just the version of himself that he projected, but his true self. The kid that was good, studied hard, and cared about other people. The kid who's heart was on his sleeve 24/7 and who was easily hurt by those he loved. A kid who, like everyone else at Kukui High school, just wanted to fit in.

Stepping into the bathroom, Danny gingerly stripped out of his clothes, glad that he'd chosen a button-down plaid shirt that day. There was no way he could have managed a t-shirt with the pain he was in. His jeans and boxers were just as easy, the first coming off with a slip of the belt, while the second merely required two tugs and a little shimmy.

Once naked, Danny took a moment to gaze at himself in the mirror, to take a look at all the bruises, small cuts, and abrasions where the kids' shoes had rubbed his clothing hard into his bare skin. If he was able to walk tomorrow, it'd be a damn miracle, given that his legs—still too pale for the islands—looked like someone had painted bruise-colored camouflage on them.  
Danny sighed, stepping into the shower and letting the hot water soothe and relax his muscles, wanting to forget the beating ever happened. Despite the heat outside, Danny lingered in the shower, daydreaming like any other kid his age.

When he was finally through, skin pruned and hair sopping, Danny shut off the shower only to hear what sounded like a group of people talking downstairs. He stayed as quiet as possible, not knowing whether he was about to get arrested again or not. Sure, he'd been the victim, but his record said otherwise and kids, especially older ones, were _very_ good at lying.

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'ed by the awesome (and very thorough ;) ) . Thank you so much, hon!!  
> Also, the idea for this story all came from 's post [here](http://hawaiifive-0-tv.livejournal.com/348468.html), so go thank her for inspiring me to write!


End file.
